Ricciardo dominates both days in young driver test

Daniel Ricciardo was by far the fastest man in the last two days in Abu Dhabi, as he topped the timesheets in both days of the young driver test on Tuesday and Wednesday. He was driving for the Red Bull team, and managed to beat Sebastian Vettel’s pole position lap by an entire second.

Dean Stoneman ran with aerodynamic equipment on his Williams

Tuesday

On the first day, Ricciardo was a second faster than Oliver Turvey, who was driving for McLaren. Antonio Felix de Costa, a 19-year-old for Force India, was third.

Esteban Gutierrez, who is Sauber’s test driver, was 4th, ahead of Dean Stoneman (Williams) and Mikhail Aleshin (Renault). Jean Eric Vergne was 7th for Toro Rosso, followed by Paul di Resta, who shared his car with Antonio Felix de Costa across the day.

Sam Bird was 9th for Mercedes, Jerome D’Ambrosio 10th for Virgin, Pastor Maldonado 11th for HRT, and Jules Bianchi was 12th for Ferrari. Rodolfo Gonzalez was 13th in the Lotus car, and 17-year-old Rio Haryanto (Virgin) was last, although he only completed 21 laps, only a quarter of many other drivers’ totals.

Daniel’s time of 1.39.616 was an excellent time, but it must be considered that the track was approximately 1.1 – 1.4 seconds faster than the Grand Prix there last weekend.

Times from Day 1:

Position

Driver

Car

Best lap

Gap

Laps

1

Daniel Ricciardo

Red Bull

1.39.616

83

2

Oliver Turvey

McLaren

1.40.725

1.109

85

3

Antonio Felix da Costa

Force India

1.41.381

1.765

77

4

Esteban Gutierrez

Sauber

1.41.432

1.816

88

5

Dean Stoneman

Williams

1.41.522

1.906

70

6

Mikhail Aleshin

Renault

1.42.073

2.457

58

7

Jean Eric Vergne

Toro Rosso

1.42.489

2.873

93

8

Paul di Resta

Force India

1.42.736

3.120

28

9

Sam Bird

Mercedes

1.42.985

3.369

67

10

Jerome d’Ambrosio

Virgin

1.43.518

3.902

36

11

Pastor Maldonado

HRT

1.43.750

4.134

108

12

Jules Bianchi

Ferrari

1.43.894

4.278

59

13

Rodolfo Gonzalez

Lotus

1.44.924

5.308

83

14

Rio Haryanto

Virgin

1.49.439

9.823

21

Wednesday

The last ever Bridgestone tyres ever to be used in Formula 1

On Day 2, Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest time again, and this time was a second a lap faster than Vettel’s pole lap on Saturday. Sebastian’s time of 1.39.394 was beaten by Ricciardo, D’Ambrosio and Bird. Like last time though, the track has rubbered in hugely since last weekend.

Jerome D’Ambrosio was 7 tenths behind, followed by Sam Bird and Gary Paffett, who took over from Oliver Turvey in the McLaren.

Jules Bianchi improved to 5th, Sergio Perez got his first taste of the Sauber car he will be driving next year, and took it to 6th place. Paul di Resta was 7th, just ahead of Pastor Maldonado. Jean-Eric Vergne was 9th, but had his day interrupted by an engine problem with his Toro Rosso engine.

Yelmer Burrman shared the Force India with Di Resta, and took 10th position. Davide Valsecchi, driving the Hispania car, was 11th. He shared that car with Josef Kral, who was 13th. Luiz Razia was 12th for Virgin.

The Lotus car was at the back of the timesheets, in the hands of two different drivers, with Rodolfo Gonzalez going much faster than Vladimiar Arabadzhiev.

Wednesday was the last ever day of Formula 1 cars using the Bridgestone tyre. The Japanese company have made over 700,000 racing tyres for F1 in the last 14 years, and fitted the last set to the Lotus cars.